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Mage is the class you first start out with in Hearthstone. Mage have always received a great set of cards printed for them and consistently get board clears and piercing damage spells. In Journey to Un'Goro, the Elemental tribe was introduced and Elemental Mage became a great deck for a while.
Mage also received great cards from the Knights of the Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs expansions. These expansions will be rotating out of standard in a couple of months. We covered the strongest constructed cards leaving Standard for Druid and Hunter too.
The meta has significantly changed with the release of Rastakhan's Rumble a couple of months ago. Odd Mage and Jana'lai are all the hype right now. The meta has shifted, but Mage will still be losing some powerful cards from their pool. There is no doubt that Mage will continue to perform and be a dominant class in the next Standard cycle.
Nonetheless, here are the best Mage cards that will leave Standard in a couple of months in 2019.
#5 Arcanologist
Expansion: Journey to Un'Goro
Arcanologist is just such a well-designed card. Secrets are quite powerful in Mage and many decks include them. Cards like Kirin Tor Mage allow you to get a body and play a free Secret too. Not only that, Arcanologist's Battlecry which draws the Secret also thins your deck by a card. If you played 2, it thins it by 2.
This is extremely effective because thinning your deck means that you have much better odds at drawing other cards from your deck, so your next topdeck won't be a Secret. Arcanologist is reminiscent of the Naxxramas card Mad Scientist. Mad Scientist would pull a secret directly without you having to play the secret at all. That's honestly much more powerful.
Arcanologist has better stats and a balanced Battlecry. She will be missed from Standard!
#4 Arcane Artificer
Expansion: Kobolds & Catacombs
Arcane Artificer, this little guy is such an effective one drop given the vast array of spells available at Mage's disposal. Play 2 of these guys and Flamestrike, you gain 14 armor and deal 4 damage to all your enemy minions! The ultimate defensive tactic.
Arcane Artificer is also an Elemental, which means that it can synergize well with other Elementals and have lifesteal from Frost Lich Jaina. It also has great stats for a 1-drop and he's very effective late game as well.
#3 Dragon's Fury
Expansion: Kobolds & Catacombs
Dragon's Fury retains the Joust mechanic that started back in 2015's The Grand Tournament expansion. It is an extremely effective board clear when you have high mana spells (even better than Flamestrike!). The only downside is that it deals damage to ALL minions, so yours will be affected too. But a 5-7 damage board clear is extremely strong!
#2 Primordial Glyph
Expansion: Journey to Un'Goro
Primordial Glyph is just straight up busted. It became an auto-include in many Mage decks because the discount of 2 mana is extremely strong. 4 mana Blizzard, 5 mana Flamestrike, 3 mana Dragon's Fury and more are just broken and unfair. The cost of this spell is also really cheap and discovering a spell can also help in many situations.
If you're playing against an aggro deck, a 0 mana Frostbolt can help clear their big guys. Or a cheap secret. Or any of the above mentioned cheap board clears.
#1 Frost Lich Jaina
Expansion: Knights of the Frozen Throne
Guess you saw this coming. Mage's Death Knight hero is extremely effective and she can be quite hard to kill. You can't risk putting any minion at 1 health or she gets a free Water Elemental with her hero power. With other Elementals in the deck, Lifestealing away is a great option to just stay alive.
Frost Lich Jaina is among the best Death Knight heroes released in the set and some people are sighing of relief that she will leave soon.
Honorable Mentions
Meteor
Expansion: Journey to Un'Goro
Meteor is an extremely effective board clear and it can devastate high health minions which are hard to remove. The highest health in a minion in the game is 14 (Ultrasaur), so it can remove any big minions.
Pyros
Expansion: Journey to Un'Goro
Pyros is a sticky minion and keeps returning as a larger and larger version of itself. It has insane synergy with Frost Lich Jaina and a 6 or 10 damage Lifesteal can help her recover so easily.
Open The Waygate
Expansion: Journey to Un'Goro
This Quest from the Un'Goro set is famous for the Exodia Mage which it spawned. An extra turn with 4 Sorcerer Apprentice's and Archmage Antonidas meant unlimited Fireballs to the face! It takes time to complete and a little skill to master, but it had an impact on the meta.
Aluneth
Expansion: Kobolds & Catacombs
Aluneth is an amazing tool to use for Aggro Mage, where you can play Secrets and hard damage spells while drawing easily. It does hit hard in Fatigue though.
Explosive Runes
Expansion: Kobolds & Catacombs
Explosive Runes is a secret that worked surprisingly great in Mage. It is a great addition to Aggro Mage and better than many secrets in the pool of Mage cards.
